TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Tabuk City’s human resource initiatives during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic earned it a prestigious recognition from the Department of Health (DOH) the Best Practices Awardee in the Human Resources category for the upcoming 2023 COVID-19 Laboratory Network Recognition Ceremony to be held on December 1, 2023.
The Tabuk City COVID-19 RT-PCR Testing Laboratory is one of 23 awardees out of the 350 COVID-19 laboratories in the entire country upon careful deliberation by the Awards Selection Committee.
“These CIIDs and laboratories went above and beyond their role in pandemic response as part of the COVID-19 laboratory network,” Usec. Nestor F. Santiago Jr. stated in a memorandum.
As part of the city’s pandemic response, Mayor Darwin C. Estrañero oversaw the establishment of the city’s molecular laboratory, which is the only LGU-funded and run laboratory in Northern Luzon. It offers free COVID-19 testing to residents of the city as well as neighboring provinces like Cagayan, Isabela, and Mt. Province. The molecular laboratory’s ability to screen for COVID-19 was crucial to the city’s pandemic response since it sped up test results turnaround times and enabled timely and appropriate management and action.
Recognizing the need to sustain and expand the capacity of Tabuk City Covid-19 RT-PCR Testing Laboratory, the city institutionalized the Molecular Laboratory Section under the Ancillary and Health Services Division of the City Health Services Office through Sangguniang Panlungsod Ordinance No. 11 series of 2021.
In order to maintain its commitment to combating the dreaded disease by employing human resources vital to the organization, the city government opened and filled jobs for one Medical Technologist III and two Medical Technologist I on March 23, 2022. This ensured the functionality of the testing laboratory in specimen collection, specimen acceptance and rejection, actual RT-PCR Testing, online reporting to the COVID Document Repository System, implementation of the Quality Assurance Program and inventory of supplies and logistics.
To supplement the staff requirement, the Ccty hired additional job-order medical technologists and requested the DOH for additional medical technologists under the Health Human Resource Program of the DOH-Central Office.
By Jayson Antonio
